Shadow
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: When you lose a loved one, you'll do just about anything to get them back. Even if it means going over to the dark side and losing yourself. Just how far will Naruto go for her? NarutoxFem Shikamaru. Set after Shipudden. M for Lemons. Co-writer wanted!
1. Power of Darkness

**_A/N: Lessee here, hmm...ahem...This, well...hmmm...how should I put this? The other day I watched sizeable amount of the darker episodes of Naruto. I found their lack of faith disturbing. No pun intended. So, I got to thinking, as I always seem to do (You know what I mean if you've read Beyond the Shadows)Naruto takes too much abuse, too, TOO much for my liking! This fic, is, basically, what would, could, or SHOULD happen if all that hatred for the Kyuubi made our favorite blond snap. Especially if someone really did make that attempt on his life and leave him half dead, from what I've read._**

**_Basically, a very pissed, very BADASS dark Naruto when he returns several years later and begins his plot of revenge. What on earth were you thinking, Naruto no baka! You shouldn't have put up with any of that nastiness in the first place! That being said, the setting is roughly three years later than in canon and is DELIBERATE. Not much has changed aside from the fact that Naruto is basically a little older than the rest of the gang, for the sake of the story, older fools ya fools. And to answer the immediate question I KNOW you'll all be asking, this is at a point, a pivotal point, just a little AFTER the preliminary exams. _**

**_Did I mention his plans inolve recruiting a number of allies?_**

**_BEWARE: Naruto...is rather dark and saddistic in this ficlet, and you'll soon see why, so read very carefully and all shall be explained! Also, Shipudden events have yet to happen just thought I'd mention that as when the time skip comes THEN Shippuden will begin. For now, this is just Naruto, Dark and not nice Naruto, but Naruto nonetheless, he'll have his moments of niceness like all villains do, I guess...(sigh) it'll probably also be a harem because I can't see him sticking with one girl from the way I've made him T_T._**

**_NARUTO WILL HAVE HIS REVENGE SO VOTE FOR DE PAIRINGS FOOLS YA FOOLS XD!_**

**_Also, he's..., well, you'll just have to read and see._**

**_The Power of Darkness_**

_'We're...we're going to die!'_

Kin Tsuchi scrambled over a bed of wet cobblestones, her jeans soaked from the chilly stream below, her shirt from the freezing drizzle above. She slumped backwards against a large boulder, her mouth hanging slack as she gasped for breath. She knew Zaku was beside her, somewhere beyond the stone, his frantic eyes prowling the gulley for any sign of their pursuer. She looked down at what had once been her left arm, now burnt to such an extent that she could barely even force it into a fist.

How had this happened?

A dull _whump _signaled the boulder's destruction at her back. Kin curled into a ball and somehow succeeded in shielding a bruised rib from the worst of the blast. and then their was only the intensity of raw travesty to greet her flailing form. Kin's face became intimate with the ground in a way that no self-respecting kunoichi would want and then he saw her and she was on her feet, running again.

"Zankuha!" Zaku bellowed, the ruined arms he'd once been so proud, only just healed, just repaired, spewing a rippling wave of pressure. Their opponent smiled, _damnit he smiled, _and Abumi Zaku fell into a bloodied heap of viscera. Kin joined soon thereafter, visions of her own end flashing before her eyes as she crumpled to her knees beside the battered genin; utterly paralyzed. He stalked forth, golden eyes narrowed to amused, half-lidded slits as he came toward Zaku, because Zaku would be first.

Why?

Terrified black eyes could only stare on in horror at the sight before them. She watched, horrified, as the body of her comrade was tossed about violently like a lifeless doll. Where had she gone wrong? What had they done to make him betray them? Had they not been nothing short of loyal? Had they not pledged to serve him unconditionally?

Why were they being hunted?

The body was thrown against the ground, at her knees. She couldn't get up. The older boy's hand weakly grasped for a support, only to end up with a fistful of dirt. Feebly, Zaku lifted his head towards Kin. He extended his shaking arm towards her, as if to reach out to her.

"K-kin…" he choked. "…What did we do wrong?"

She could only stare on in horror as the foot of their assaulter came stomping violently down on the boy's back, causing several ribbons of crimson liquid to be forced out of his mouth. Kin gasped, too scared to say anything, to injured to move from her spot.

Why was this happening?

Her shocked expression slowly turned to anger, burning tears welled in her eyes.

"Y-you….bastard! Why are you doing this?" She shouted, her voice trembling.

Orochimaru's cruel grin never left his face as he pulled his foot back and kicked Zaku's lifeless body in her direction. There was silence as Kin's eyes trailed to Zaku's pale face. She found herself cradling his limp head against her; in false, unreal hopes of bringing the boy back to life. Hot tears gained their freedom as they rebelliously started streaming down her dirtied and bruised face. Now, both of her comrades were dead.

But…

…had they really been her comrades to start with? Had they not cared about her well-being at all when that loud, blonde, Konoha kunoichi had obtained control over her body? Had they not, indeed, actually _attacked_ her while she was being manipulated? She lowered her head, clenching her eyes shut.

No one had ever cared for her from the start, had they? She had been alone from the beginning, fending for herself. The comatose corpse she held so possessively in her arms would have cared less if it had been only _her_ with this cruel fate. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to let go the body of her fallen teammate.

Orochimaru stepped closer.

She blinked back her tears that had yet to subside. Was this really the end? Was she to die here? Alone, unwanted, and humiliated? For surley, this man she had once called her Master had used her, as well as her deceased comrades, for nothing more than his pawns? His tools that were expendable?

She swallowed the lump that had begun to grow in her throat.

_Why?_

Why her?

Why now?

Her aggressor stopped and kneeled to face her. She couldn't bring herself to face him. Was this the end?

"You…" her eyes shot open when she finally heard his terribly chilling voice. "…have no more use to me."

She lifted her head slowly, clinging to Zaku's dead frame. Her widened eyes gawked in horror as Orochimaru grinned viciously. Having no family, she had once looked up to this man as her master. She had committed the entirety of her short life to serving him. Loyally, faithfully, without question. She'd done everything he'd ever asked of her. She'd never disobeyed, not once, and so the question still lingered, where had she gone wrong? What had she done?

"No...

Zaku twitched, inexplicably.

"What a foolish thing to do." The man who'd given her everything smiled; _sneering _as he obliterated her seedling of hope and turned its fruit to ash with his mocking words. "Had you lain still, you might have lived for a little longer, boy."

Abruptly, her was before her, eyes hardened. The words died in her mouth, the sound replaced with blood, as the tapered tip of the Kusanagi drilled through_...Zaku?_She blinked, her eyes opening and closing within an infinite slowness as her teammate shifted in her arms, bolting upright at the very last second. Kin felt a finger poke her stomach, but there was no pain forthcoming. There was no pain none, none at all. No, there was only the hollow enormity swelling within her chest, as Zaku's chest imploded; sparing her life_...in exchange for his own._

"Zaku?" Kin blinked, dread seizing her as she noticed the every growing pull of blood beneath her comrade. "Zaku!" No response came from those pale and blue lips, save for a soft and steady whistle, curling his visage upward into a final, defiant smile. He bore no pulse and did not breathe, yet still, the rythym did carry itself upon the winds. With one last gasp at life, Zaku Abumi gave his last, and shuddering request.

"Please...don't die also...Kin." Zaku died in mid-breath, a slight tremor passing through his body, his eyes still fixed on her. Numbed by the sudden termination, Kin couldn't bring herself to lay a hand on either of his eyes because that would mean touching him, and drawing shut his lids. She wouldn't be acknowledging his death, and she couldn't bear to do that. She just couldn't, and knowing it would be in vain, she fought the tears and raged impotently against the bile that rose up inside her throat.

_"Oh, god."_

She kept cradling it within her arms, rocking him back and forth as if it was going to somehow pump vitality back into his dead veins. She didn't care that there was a sword and an arm buried in chest, she didn't care that she was going to die, she didn't care bout any of it except that he was dead...dead...and there nothing to be done.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" With a revolting splatter Orochimaru extracted a bloodied palm from the boy's ribs and showed it to Kin. He held those frail-looking fingers to her face, cupping her cheek, trailing a quintet of scarlet streaks down her jawline. "Don't worry, you'll be joining him soon enough." Zaku was wrenched free from her arms, desecrated, falling to the earth. A cry was stuck somewhere inside her, lost in the dark emptiness of her throat as he fell, woodenly, not taking enough care. Deprived of the forces holding it upright, Zaku's corpse slid from her lap, its head smacking roughly against the unyielding firmness of grit and gravell grit ground and substances that were of the forest. Zaku's limbs were loose, graceless, lying in an uncomfortable position as she fussed and fretted; trying to pull him back into her arms and ellicit some sort of response from this motionless body that was just like...like...

Just like any other corpse.

"ZAKU!"

Somehow, her legs interpreted this as a threat response because she was hurtling away from the sannin. Displeasure flashed across that face, then she was skipping backwards with Zaku gripped in her arms. She made all of two leaps_ -not enough-_before her legs crumpled and she slammed back-first into the dirt. Zaku flopped loosely around as she fumbled to her knees, screamed. Screaming, for lack of a better word, bloody murder.

"You didn't actually...Oh god... That's..._uurgh!" _

Kin Tsuchi screamed.

Kin screamed and she shrieked and she raged with what little power she had, rebelling against her own weakness, her loss, her sorrow, and the boy in her arms that would not ever breath or smile or quip an irritable reply when she bested him; because Kin had always bested the boys, and she'd been the best amongst their closely knit little group. Now Zaku was dead and Dosu, well, Dosu was little more than a smear of blood on some rooftop somewhere, _the fool!_

"Oh," Kin whimpered as she fell to her knees, her bloodied hand rubbing the boy's cold cheek. "Oh no. Oh no, oh no," she repeated, as though it would somehow revive the teenager. She could feel her eyes growing impossibly hot, like they were going to boil out of their sockets and run down her face in place of the tears that already were. She touched her clean hand to her lips, as if the small action could lessen the anguish that she was feeling in her chest.

And then another sound tore through the air, a deadly hissing that she was more than familiar with.

_Laughter._

"He dead," Orochimaru's voice oozed out toward her as he swallowed that filthy sword. "Don't waste your tears on him, child."He took a few steps forward, his feet slowly and eventually reaching the mourning body of his former student. He looked down, his ever-present grin faltering slightly as he watched Kin pause and ceasing her mourning. A murmur of aggravation parted her lips and pulled at her face, contracting into a fierce scowl; uttering a blackened and condemnatory oath that she never used; because the kunoich had suddenly abandoned her silent weeping over the dead man in her arms and snapped her gaze toward him with a hacking sound reminiscent of a strangled gurgle.

_"Don't waste my time?" _Defiance flickered, sputtered, then roared high in her eyes, seething out at him with her voice as she stood woodenly, not taking enough care for the corpse behind._ "I've already wasted all of that!" _Her hand closed around one of the kunai scattered about for the ritual preparations, ripping free of the ground in a second. "We've wasted everything on you! Everything! First Dosu, then Zaku...and now me, and you say we're not longer of use to you?"

"What would you like me to do about that then, Kin?"

"I'd like you to die!" There was such vehemence behind her shriek that momentarily, Orochimaru was amused. Then he put an end to it. Kin froze as killing intent wafted out across the clearing, always grisly in its images, filling her mind with visions of her own death. She slumped to her knees, face twisting into a rictus of helpless fury. The _hole _in her stomach changed all of that. Distraught, Kin tried to say something, _anything, _in memory of Zaku's final sacrifice, but the words would not come. And then there was motion. She doubled over in pain, shocked as thick, scarlet blood expelled itself from her mouth and spilled onto the floor. Orochimaru wiggled those blood digits before his face, spattering Kin in flecks of blood and viscera as he leered down at her; made impotent at last.

"That, will cost you dearly, child." Orochimaru smiled as though he hadn't a care in the world, and he probably didn't. "Now, remain where you are." He began to form seals, and Kin lay there, dejected, eyes welling but refusing to shed the tears that burned and stung at her eyes.

_'After all this... _

Kin coughed fiftfully, and expelled a shower of blood from her lungs.

_'Zaku...Dosu...I'm sorry!'_

Kin closed her eyes and winced, pain blossoming all over her body. She wouldn't cry. She refused to cry. There was no point in shedding tears because tears were useless, weak, irrelevant. She forced her gaze to meet that of her "master" and then the tears started coming. They came, because she couldn't bear to watch Zaku being smothered by the ashes of the deceased. And he was. She had to watch those tethers of shadow and dust and dirt winding around his body, consuming him and taking the shape of the resurrected victim for Orochimaru's jutsu. She lay there, bound, helpless, weak in every sense of the word, and Kin Tsuchi wept, cursing her own impotence.

Why couldn't she be allowed...to live?

It was a curious thought to bring to the grave.

_'Damnit..._

Kin felt her vision going white. She knew she should try to keep her eyes open, but then she realized they _were _open; and none of it mattered at all. Her time had come. She was going to die. Kin knew it and when the white began to swallow her up, she did not resist. Enough was enough. She was already dead. Doomed. Finished. Extinguished. Erased. These, and all the others words that smacked of finality; defined her and she hated them. Hers was a death she'd never wanted; never deserved, and all because some psychopathic homophobic freak deemed that she was worthless. _She,_Tsuchi Kin of the infamous Tsuchi clan, who'd never had the chance to display her true skills in her match against that Nara bastard _-damn him-_was worthless. Orochimaru was killing her because she'd failed to live up to his expectations, and whomever had set those impossible standards was probably in dead in a ditch like this one, too.

Kin was dead, so she paid no attention when a hand closed around her hair. She was _already _dead. Who was she to care what they did with her corpse? Who was she to care as Orochimaru screeched and swore and spat so many curses that she shouldn't be able to hear any of them? Kin wanted to laugh but she'd bitten her tongue during the bitterly brief scuffle with her -former- master, and those of the dead did not laugh; nor did they feel pain.

And then the hand fisted into those lusciously long raven locks of which she'd become so very proud. Kin blinked, confusion filling charcoal black orbs, eyes that had once been dull and lifeless. Beginning at the bast of her neck and shooting toward her skull where the roots of her hair lay; she felt the first pinprick of a strange sensation that she was most uncomfortable with. Abruptly, her back arched and her neck twisted itself so far back that she feared it would break, as someone or something, hauled her backward.

Not gently.

Pain erupted in the base of her skull, immediately pursued by a supernova of spitting and slapping and shrieking. Damn, had that bastard brought her back to life just to kill her a second time? But this hand resonated warmth; nothing at all like the frigid touch of the rain upon that slate gray hand.

Kin wasn't dead.

For a blessed eternity, there was no pain.

_'W-Wha..._

Vehemence, or the glaring _lack-there-of,_ellicited an amused chuckle. Kin didn't dare dream of a rescue attempt, after all, who on earth would possibly want anything to do with her? She knew only two things. Whomever this was, he was strong. Strong, and _fucking fast._ Strong enough to blur backward while hauling her toward the canopy via a fistful of hair; agile enough to perform a series of one-handed seals even as he inhaled, exhaled, _dousing _the earth within a dense stream of blue and black flames. Then her world blurred; she was being twisting aside, presented with one last glimpse of Orochimaru's disbelieving visage, amongst the flames, twisting into a furious scowl and subsequent hiss of indignation.

Then they were gone into the night and the pursuit began...

...and ended in a second.

_'Shit!'_

Kin felt herself be hurtled through the wall and found herself tossed through the forest.

_'Shit! Shit shit SHIT!'_

Kin had just enough time to blink before she was flung out into open space. Kin screamed; because she was too terrified to do anything else. Chakra boiled past and left her warmed within the ensuing confalgration that consumed the floor. Then her hair jerked backward again, and pulled her with it. She landed in a pair of arms, which, subserviently flung her backward yet again. Whomever grabbed her long tresses was nowhere to be seen, and even if they had been, darkness smothered everything so intensely that Kin could only kick and flail and protest in weak defiance.

"L-Let go...of me."

Kin was promptly dropped on her butt, but at the speed she'd been moving, she was sent sprawling. Stars exploded before her eyes and forced her numbed body into motion; scraped her chin off the ground, and forcing her to search for her attacker/murderer/rescuer. For a blessed eternity, she saw nothing. _Then _she saw something. At first she thought she was imagining it. It began as a whisper of wind, a puff of dust scattered in the moonlight clearing into which she'd been hurled.

"What foul sorcery is this?" Wreathed in a thin sheathe of dust, Orochimaru emerged from the inexcusable failure of his experiment. Placing one hand across the shattered granite that had once been the wall of this complex, he stepped out into the smoldering ruin of its tragic aftermath. Flaming rubble lay strewn about the remains of the compound, and Kin, her progress marked by a deep trough through which she'd been flung to safety, sprawled across the floor, completely unharmed.

"No, its nothing." Confounded by the sudden explosion and ensuing obliteration of his base, Orochimaru peered at the dust in contempt. "A trick of the wind" He scowled at Kin and this little plume of dust trickling out into the open air, risking a glance toward Zaku's bereaved corpse. His gaze lingered for a moment longer before he decided to leave it lay; the boy was already dead. Now, he'd have to retrieve the girl and complete the preparations sometime within the next two months before the third round of those lovely little exams. He exhaled, opting to leave it covered in ash. Trick or treat, it mattered not. Now now, when this auxiliary base was too damaged from the explosion to risk another attempt.

_'Curses!'_

Damnation but now the Anbu would surely come. He'd chosen this location, this secluded little grove located just outside of Konoha's outer wall, because it was well hidden and no one would think to look for him here while he conducted his experiments. With a legion of _-somewhat-_ skilled shinobi only a few miles away, it posed a risk, but Orochimaru was accustomed to risks. He was not, however, accustomed to the inexplicable implosion of his base. Now, they were left exposed to the elements; to the moonlight, as the storm had _-eerily enough-_ chosen to subside.

Strange.

The rain had stopped, and they were presented with the infinite brilliance of the full moon; because the clouds themselves were fleeing as though they'd been swept aside by the hand of a giant. He uttered a string of long and lengthy lamentations as he stepped through the rubble and made his way toward the inert Kunoichi who'd supposedly triggered it. He made it all of five steps before that little speck of dust swirled up again; commanding his attention.

Surely it was the wind.

But the dust didn't settle, and there was no wind tonight. Still, the dust seemed to swirl in one place, gathering in one of the patches of moonlight nearest to Kin. She gave a small cry and shrank away from it; skittering back as the wind that was not wind became a whirlwind, and then a tiny tornado. Though there was still no wind, something was taking shape, black specks obscuring and spinning at a dizzying pace to the height of six tornado glowed an iridescent, scintillating shade of shot out and danced across the floor and Kin cried out. Orochimaru all but froze, his smile slipping away into the night as a strange and haunting tune filled the air, perpetuating this strange phenomena.

Taking shape through the tornado was a man, or something like a man. The figure flashed blue, spraying light in every direction, and not even Orochimaru was fast enough to cover his eyes. When he looked again, when he dared to open his eyes, a figure unlike any he had ever seen stood between him and the kunoichi cowering wide-eyed in the grass. The man appeared to be carved from glossy red and black marble or shaped from liquid metal, save for a white-clothed and scratched _Konohagakure _hitiate draped around his right bicep.

Kin blinked rapidly.

_'What's a missing nin doing here?'_

His clothes weren't so much clothes as skin, though he appeared to wear shoes and was sexless, his whole body was unrelieved black and every contour was crisply defined. He was lean and every muscle was etched, from his shoulders to his V of a chest to his stomach to his legs. There was something wrong about his skin, though. At first, the man or demon or statue made of flesh had reflected light like burnished steel. Now, only parts of him gleamed, the crescents of his biceps, the horizontal slashes of his abdominal muscles. The rest of him faded from glossy black to faded scarlet whenever the shadows touched his being.

Kin swallowed once.

"W-What do you want?" she asked wondering what it was as the humanoid creature laid a hand upon her shoulder. "H-Hey...I asked you a question...?" The words trailed off as they unwound those chafing bonds from her wrists, then her ankles, working swiftly to free her from the chains and succeeding almost at once. Rubbing at her sore wrists, Kin felt the burning sensation in her chest fought the tears, and felt a defiant droplet streak down her cheek when it patted on the shoulder and spun about with an all too obvious intent. Leaving her with the bitter recollection that she'd nearly been murdered moments ago, reminded now, as Orochimaru made the mistake of stepping forward.

"I'm going to be terribly dissapointed if that's you under there, Itachi-kun."

A low grunt answered, and abruptly, he was standing.

"No...you're not Itachi." Orochimaru seemed to decide as the apparition locked glares with him. "Hmm, if that isn't a genjutsu then who...

Radiating hostility, it took a half step to the right, barring Orochimaru from his sacrifice. Before either could speak, the entity flung the cowl back from the shadows of its visage and both shinobi were to stupefied to speak as the moonlight bathed its face in luminance. Most frightening was the demon's face. It looked even less human than the rest of it. The mouth a small gash; cheekbones high; hair a disheveled, spiky black; brows prominent and disapproving above overlarge eyes out of a nightmare.

"Who are you?" Orochimaru cursed himself for his carelessness as the entity mockingly touched a finger to the hitiate and glared with those eyes. They were the palest blue of sapphire; the coldest winter dawn. They spoke of judgement without pity, of punishment without remorse. As the figure studied him, and then the kunoichi at his feet, Orochimaru became more and more certain that the eyes were actually glowing. Wisps of smoke curled out from them from whatever fire infernal fires burned within that hellish figure.

"Might you be a certain...criminal?" Orochimaru was grinning that wicked grin and Kin whimpered softly as a sudden rustling of wind whipped through the clearing. Oddly enough, this small expression of fear seemed to perturb her rescuer, who, in lieu of a verbal reply reached up to the molten steel coating its face and bristled visibly. Exuding a strange yet malignant chakra that any creature would doubtlessly cower from, he bolted forward, and in an instant, Kin realized that something was wrong; because it had Orochimaru by the wrist and throat, levering him off the ground as though he had weighed no more than a feather, perhaps even less than a feather, because now there the unmistakable scent of blood in the air, and the sight of it sent a small trill through Kin. As the pulling, ripping and tearing ended and its expressionless face curled into a small smile, Kin felt a weight lifted from her shoulders; because the arm was...

_...gone._

The silent thing dropped Orochimaru and raised a knee into his stomach before his feet touched the ground. The sanin wheezed out a breath, then those hands of black and blackness clamped down around his ears and deafened him to the next attack, coming in the form of an upturned palm-thrust which immediately accomplished the task of, well, thrusting his chin upward again. Kin watched it raise its leg and coat the limb in a thin sheathe of red light, allowing those serpentine eyes to see a crackling heel descending upon his head with a great and terrible chakra burgeoning it to almost seismic proportions.

_...Fast!'_

Kin winced away from the gut-wrenching crack and ruthlessly suppressed her gorge before it could hope to rise. Meanwhile, the blackish red ghoul had paused, allowing the sannin's feet to finally find purchase upon the soil and reclaim his bearings. Kin blinked and watched him shuffle backward in retreat. All of those blows had landed in perfect synchronization, before her former master could fall more than few inches to the ground; bridging the gap that would've allow him to reclaim his footing and, ultimately, dominate the battle. Now, the black-haired thing awaited those twitching hands of the sannin as they grabbed at Orochimaru's broken neck, and forcefully righted it with a sickening pop.

Then he belched a viscuous stream of wind into the upturned palm that rose to greet that gust.

_'Yuck!'_

Kin forced herself to swallow her bile before she could choke on it; held enrapt by the next move of the Konoha Missing-nin. Orochimaru was still in the process of raising his head the few centimeters it would take for him look his opponent in the eye from this hunched stance he'd adopted. Blackness filled his vision as he found the hand levered before his face, less than an inch spared between them.

Fingers splayed wide and grasping, it could have easily seized Orochimaru's face and continued the combination. Defying the expectations placed upon it, the hand clenched into a claw and clutched at nothingness and emptiness, at the now spiraling energies of wind and flame coalescing into his palm. Transfixed, both shinobi stared at the small, soccer-ball-sized sphere as it bulged and swelled out of proportion before reclaiming its proper shape as a medium sized sphere of crimson nestled within the clenched fingers of that iron fist, growing larger with every second that it was allowed a breath.

_'This elements is...!'_

Whatever it was, the strange apparition and his technique remained static for another second. In that instant, Kin swore she saw a smile as it savored the expression of disbelief and terror in the eyes of its soon-to-be victim. Then the sphere blasted outward; birthing a great and tearing stream of dense crimson chakra so dense that it became visible almost instantly, and all but obliterated the loner amongst loners standing before its wrathful radiance.

The opaque gale nearly blew Kin clear off her feet.

_'I knew it! That's Meitōn! The Darkness Release Bloodline! He absorbed Orochimaru's chakra and sent it right back at him!'_

She shrieked and threw an arm up for her face as the fires rolled over the clearing and baked the sannin's form. Cruel and callous, the pallor of scarlet chakra bathed the clearing in dull shades of lights both onyx and crimson and a malevolent blackish-red in coloration. Their master held the beam in hand for a moment longer, before abruptly extinguishing it within his fist. Deprived of the energies that once maintained its velocity, what little remained of the streaking bolt dissipated soon thereafter, leaving a smoldering swathe of baked mud and charred earth in wake of its cataclysmic destruction.

Orochimaru was standing at the end, arms bloodied and placed upon the soil, bent backwards at an impossible angle. This shinobi had just begun to turn when the earth cracked. It paused, regarding the thin slit in the earth with thinly veiled annoyance. Then the earth shattered and a blade burst forth from beneath the rocky soil. He spun around, staring wordlessly as the tip of the Kusanagi blade hurtled toward his chest, as Kin screamed, as Orochimaru's long and spindly neck and head erupted from the blackened clay and thrust the blade deep into his chest cavity...

...and susbsuquently failed to penetrate.

The muted sihinobi stared at the tip of the blade as it poked at his chest, sparking against the black marble as it struggled to find a way into his flesh. It dangled the severed limb before him mutely, almost as though it knew he'd be displeased, then it _swatted _the longsword aside, spitting more sparks of bluish gold from its palm upon contact. Nonplussed, Orochimaru was already retracting the Kusanagi by the time the mute shinobi was free and clear, gracefully somersaulting, back to Kin's side, back to safety.

Orochimaru scowled as he flipped himself upright.

"To think that you'd break through my Sanju Rashumon so easily...and withstand the Kusanagi Blade...impressive."

The creature turned his face up, and as his eyes locked on the sanin's they flashed from a smoldering blue to a fiercely burning red. In that next moment, three events occurred. The first, being that the demon flicked a hand, obliterating Kin's bonds, shredding the thin cord which held his cloak. Freed from its bonds, the garment fell from his shoulders and draped itself upon Kin. She grabbed at it when it momentarily wrapped around her quivering form, and she quivered because the second event had just occurred.

_He spoke._

_**"Orochimaru of the sannin, you who enjoy the pain and suffering of the Leaf, Cloud, and Sand,"**_His voice was hollow, mocking, but with a feral undercurrent that made the hairs on her neck rise up. His free hand rose, and red chakra coalesced around it, forming cold claws of fire that grew longer even as she watched. _**"Dost thou desire thy judgement this night?"**_the demon asked with two burning points of red light that had never left Orochimaru's for an instant, and had left his clawed hand as a flaming representation of the element.

_'His...chakra...its too...heavy...!'_

Kin swallowed nervously as red chakra began to bubble outward.

_'Is this what an S-Class shinobi's chakra...feels like...!'_

_**"This one is ****now ****under my ****protection."**_The face swung toward Kin before she could even _think _to flinch and the third irregularity amongst all this fear, as that the masked marble and blackish red was suddenly smiling, and falling apart. Without any semblance of warning, the strange shroud of chakra and liquid metal began to _peel _from the face, exposing human features while the former of the Sound looked on in disbelief at his true visage. She found herself presented with a weathered face bearing a thin scar running the length of his neck, touching to the beginnings of scraggly blond, as though someone had tried to slash his throat open in his youth, and missed horrifically. Shaded by these ragged locks of platinum blond, she detected strange whisker-markings furrowed into deep, menacing troughs as were those emotionless sapphire eyes.

_'I've seen that kind of pain before..._She felt such pity for him that she wanted to was...startlingly young. He, a boy who looked to be not a day over seventeen, smiled. Within the tearing rapidity of only two beats, Kin felt her heart shatter, reform and shatter all over again at the sight of that smile.

"Whoa there," A loose and lightly amused voice drawled, "I'm not here to kill you."

He smiled brightly.

_Smiled_ at her, and _-damnit- _Kin's heart slammed against her chest. She flared scarlet as those blue orbs sparked with amusement. Before she could find the words of gratitude the nukenin turned back toward Orochimaru, whisking a hand across his face, donning the demonic shield of burning black and marble once more. She's seen his face for all of an instant, and suddenly, this hellish abomination didn't seem quite so scary to her anymore.

_'W-Why the hell am I thinking that! Th-this is no time to be acting like Tayuya, damnit!'_

Orochimaru tittered softly.

"Kukuku...now I know what you are... He raised a finger and pointed toward the seething spectre, the latter tossing the arm back to him. "So you've finally come to take your revenge for their betrayal have you, _Naruto-kun?" _When an amused hiss arose from the armored shinobi Kin knew that she had just learned the name of her saviour. She swept a hand to her face scrubbed at her eyes furtively, hoping to hide the tears that still threatened to spill down her face at any given moment. Another one? Another nukenin come to take revenge on Konoha during the Chunin Exams, too?

Lovely.

_**"And the village **_**will **_**burn."**_The nukenin known as Naruto announced, plucking Kin from her thoughts with scorn. _**"But it shall burn at my leisure, not yours. My presence here has nothing to do with your petty little schemes but for **_**that **_**one." **_He pointed toward Kin**.**_**"That one of the Tsuchi clan will be coming with me. You won't be touching a single hair on her head, Orochimaru of the Sannin." **_Cold dread _paralyzed _the sannin for a moment. No one had called him that since his days as a Konoha Shinobi, and those were long in the past. The creature was moving towards him, the ground turning dead, _burning, _wherever those blackened soles touched upon the ground. He drew back and re-composed himself as the hostile entity came forward, weaving streaks of orange-yellow flames between them as he straddled the shadows once more; but this wasn't an etching of fire.

It was fire, _inside _his hand.

Where the crimson burned, and for several inches past it, his arm became transparent as glass. It as as if the limb itself had become flame, and that flame banished the darkness to the trees and was something almost holy within its majesty. Now spread from shoulder to fingers, his hand blazed out flame, nearly three and a half feet in front of him, and then died down. Orochimaru was on the verge of forsaking this girl before the archaic creatture split its own face with a toothy grin.

Cold dread froze the sannin further as the spectre placed his hands apart.

_'What manner of technique is this?'_

He brought the other hand up and flexed it and his fingers closed around the fires. Held them,and a scythe materialized. Simply appearing from the chakra, glowing reddish black as was his skin, the crescent hook of a tip dangled from a relatively simple and not at all oblong pole of a handle, one that he shouldered it deprecatingly. Naruto didn't seem to mind at all that his scythe was holding a weapon composed of more flame than actual steel, and if he did, he wasn't doing much to convey that annoyance.

_**"You may try and take her from me, if you wish." **_He smiled and the mask made the expression grotesque._**"But do you know what'll happen if this cuts you?" **_Orochimaru glared balefully at the blade that Naruto kept shouldered. The scythe was almost as infamous as the Totsuka Sword. It wouldn't seal him away, but its ability was just as, if not more-so, loathsome. In light of this, what little composure he had left abruptly deserted him in the face of this dauntless enemy.

"Boy...

The scythe blazed brighter.

"You are going to be damnably difficult about this whole thing, aren't you?" An unamused hiss grated at Kin's ears and she twisted against them. Ruby red iris and slitted pupils commanded all of Kin's considerable attention as those burning orbs. Slitted pupils bored down into those of her former master with an unamused stare, narrowing when the sanin chuckled. Heart aching, Kin spared a glance pas them, for the eviscerated body that had once been her friend.

_'I'm so sorry Zaku..._She sniffled.

Naruto took notice.

"Edo Tensei, huh?" He spat into the dirt. "Were you really going to use her for _that?"_

"And I would have, if you hadn't interfered." Orochimaru proudly reaffirmed.

_"Bastard." _When next he spoke, she was surprised to realize Naruto had abandoned the demonic voice. "You're using that jutsu?"

"Oh," Orochimaru followed them out of the shadows and into the light, where Kin did her best to stay. "You know of it, then?"

"Damn straight I do."

"Kukuku...you drive a hard bargain, Naruto-kun." The sannin pretended to ponder for a moment longer before acquiescing a thin smile. "Very well, you may have that one." He offered a wounded sigh of annoyance to Kin's sob of relief. "Now, if you _haven't _come here to kill me, I'd kindly ask you to leave. I'll need to the village for an appropriate sacrifice, now." Naruto said nothing, feigning that half-lidded stare of those who are prone to suspicion. In the end, he bowed out, and extinguished his flaming scythe.

"You'd really go that far?"

"How else do you expect me to kill the Sandaime?" Orochimaru countered pleasantly. "I'll be needing the help of the last generation to crush him and the village, after all." Nonplussed by the appalling lack of reaction given by the blond, he turned his gaze toward the strange sheathe of marble still covering the teen's body. "So you've tamed that fox of yours, have you?" There was no mistaking the slight twitch given at that statement. "Ah, not quite, then? But you've made a number of improvements to your _Kōton **(**_**Steel Release)**,regardless." Orochimaru chuckled; it was hoarse, raspy sound, it still send shivers of terror down Kin's spine. "Now that we're on the subject, how long as it been since they slit your throat? Four, five years, maybe? You've clearly gotten stronger since then, too their dismay, I'd think, if they knew you yet lived. You've developed each of your kekkai genkai; attained some measure of control over the Kyuubi, not to mention your chakra is absolutely massive."

Orochimaru paused for a breath.

"Now that I've said all those things, I've also brought up an interesting point."

"That being?"

"I cannot stand the sight of you." Orochimaru answered.

"Oh sure," Naruto offered his arms in an unamused shrug. "We're off to a great start."

"I cannot stand the sight of you." Orochimaru began again; he spoke slowly, measurably. "But my hatred for Konoha surpasses even that, as does your appreciation of the_...finer things in life."_Here Kin blinked beneath a sudden baleful glare that fell upon her. She shrank back behind Naruto, painfully aware that the blond was just about the only thing standing between her and an early grave. Those fears made what the sannin said next, all the more frightening.

_"We should join forces."_

"Again?" The rippling blackness parted from Naruto's face but this time it stayed gone. "Look, you saved my life back then, and I'm grateful, but I already paid my debt to you." Kin watched as the black and the crimson receded, seeping into his skin; leaving him exposed in an outfit of mottled greys. Dull slacks of faded grays and reds a thick cloak with a high collar and scarf. The latter of which served th ohide the jagged scar streaming down the length of his neck; Kin remembered, eying the host of weapons on his back with a small gulp.

_'Th-This guy..._

Their likelihood of an alliance genuinely frightened her; because if this strange shinobi became Orochimaru's "partner" then he'd end up like all the other partners._ Dead._No. No, Naruto couldn't possibly be thinking of such a foolhardy and reckless decision; or so she told herself. But...she didn't know Naruto. Whomever he was, he seemed given to flights of fancy as much as fury, and her 'rescue' might have been either and frankly, it terrified her. Standing here, under the moonlight, looking death in the face, cowering behind this boy a few inches taller and a number of years older; Kin was absolutely petrified. Transfixed by the tense scene playing out before the two nukenin, she awaited his reply. She didn't want to think that she'd be spared only to die again, but if Kin Tsuchi retained any fears of him accepting the ensuing offer, then she was about to watch them wither.

_"Oh, you're too much."_

Naruto snorted, laughed, contemptously.

"Well?" Orochimaru countered.

"You must be joking." Naruto snapped back. "I just told you, I'll burn Konoha to the ground, but on my terms, not yours. That's why I didn't stay in your twisted freak-show of a village, remember?" For what had to be the first time, Orochimaru stopped smiling. Oh yes, he remembered that well. Kin found it all the more strange, because she couldn't recall having ever seen someone of this calibre prior to this night of nights.

"Why do you refuse?" Orochimaru pressed. "Your eyes still burn as brightly now as they did the day I found you."

A joyless laugh from the blond.

"I'll say it again; I've no need of your help."

"Then why save this one?" Orochimaru gestured to Kin. "You've never taken an interest in anyone before; yet now you've suddenly started gathering followers?" Kin blinked rapidly as the blond swept a hand through that matted mop of bristled blond once again and silence the verbal rebuke with one of his own.

"She's the first; actually. I've found that there's strength in numbers, what with _that organization _becoming more and more active."

"Then why not assist me?" Naruto quirked a brow, but said nothing. "Oh, don't make that face. I've absolutely no interest in killing you. Besides, the Uchiha's become quite...fascinating during yout little abscence, thankts to that bumbling fool of a Hatake." Now, Kin had been observing their reactions guardedly, and she _saw _Naruto swallow painfully at the mentioning of the infamous Jonin who'd been said have copied hundreds upon undreds of different jutsu.

Orochimaru saw it too.

"I see you still remember how that kunai felt, just as I'm sure you came here to let the world know you're still alive." He didn't hold out his hand, and Kin soon saw why as the limb was now reattaching itself to his ruined shoulder, looking a great deal like snakes and serpents. An eerie hissing filled the air and she turned green at the thought. "Surely during since the last attempt on your life despite a massive chakra, you wouldn't be willing to lend my those four bloodlines of yours, Naruto-kun?"

"My bloodlines are not for you to use." Naruto countered dully ushering Kin forward ahead of him when she began to protest. "Find someone else with four of them." They kept walking, and this time the sannin remained in the darkness behind them. Ushered forward, Kin shuddered, hoping they'd keep going until this awful place and all the memories were at their backs. She wanted nothing more than to leave this damned village and never see its gates ever again.

"I'm grateful for your generosity." Naruto offered a gracious bow, and the next Kin knew, she'd been hoisted into the air, though her master still persisted in speaking. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll need to be distancing myself from here before the Anbu realize I've returned." Wishing nothing more than to distance herself from the murderous madman, she didn't consider the sudden silence of her new ally until he'd turned, reddened sclera reappearing over his shoulder, forcing her to take notice.

"Surely you know that your're the only one with such_...potential."_

Hence the reason Kin inhaled as they came to a stop.

"Pardon?" Naruto shifed just a bit, the nukenin keeping himself between Kin and the sanin. "I was under the impression you and Hiruko still conducted those experiments, or were they utter failures as well?" Uttering an unamused oath, Naruto spun around with such vehemence that Kin _almost _didn't see what came next. Suddenly, he was that hellish creature again, metal rippling back over his flesh again as he flung a kunai, as he stood there and took the sadistic cackling of the sannin when it was effortlessly snatched between two fingers without even a glimmer of effort.

"Is this any way to treat the one who saved your life?"

Suddenly, the silence was deafening.

"Come now, I thought I'd told you to stop making that face." Though he'd yet to move from that spot, Orochimaru could still be heard in the darkness, while they, remained in the light. "You know just as well as I, that its genetically impossible for any shinobi to have more than two bloodlines at a time. And yet you, Naruto-kun, you, without any experimentation or alteration, _have four._ You're living breathing proof of human evolution, a veritable splinter in the eyes of reality." Naruto gave of the rolling of the eyes and turned aside again, ushering Kin away, but not before Orochimaru finished his sentence.

"You also seem to be a bit of a hypocrite, Naruto-kun."

...I have an eye for talented shinobi." the blond relented. "This one just so happens to be female, if that's what you're implying."

Orochimaru wasn't buying it.

"I think that so-called "_eye for talent_" is really just an excuse to start forming your own little harem."

Oh, that one made him laugh.

"Really, is that the best excuse a frustrated old virgin can give?"

Another whisper plucked Kin from her thoughts as did Naruto's expression._ Rather, a lack-there-of._He simply turned around, snatched her up from the ground, and pulled her inward, mashing her head into his chest as he flung both arms around her. Kin saw the dense stream of fire gushing toward them just before Naruto muttered something about holding on. Her hands had only just tightened into the lapels of his jacket and pressed into his chest when the explosion engulfed them.

_"Troublesome."_Naruto muttered against her shoulder. There was a flash of blinding light, followed by intense heat, and then the forest canopy was below them. Kin yelped, flinging her arms around the blonde's shoulders before she could fall from his arms. Holy! She gawped down at the treetops, and the momentous leap from the ground that had brought them through the branches. She also realized there was absolutely nowhere for them to land, because apparently, _someone _had forgotten about the damnable concept of gravity.

"We'll fall!"They hung there, suspended in the air for a moment longer, before Naruto bit his thumb, swung her onto his back, palming four seals in an instant. Of course they were still falling, screaming in the case of Kin Tsuchi, and overall plummeting to their doom, before Naruto ravished her with a baleful glare and showed her his palm. "No. We won't." Thrusting it downward, pointed towards open air, fingers splayed, Naruto uttered something to which she she blinked against the ensuing burst of smoke as they crashed headfirst into...fur?

"See?" Naruto grinned recklessly. "Still in one piece."

"Uwah!" Kin yelped as she struck the soft material, and landed face up against it. "What in the hell is this stuff?"Flinching at the faint tremor that that shook them, she gingerly tapped at what she had thought to be the mossy earth beneath her hand. Instead, her fingers found _fur._Warm, soft, and cuddly. A low growl of annoyance rumbled into her ears as she flopped off Naruto with a mubmling of apologies that ended the instant they started moving.

**"Rrrrrrgh...**

The ground was _not _meant to have a pulse, and it certainly should not be able to growl at her. Kin knew this. Though Zaku was dead and though Dosu had gotten himself killed, the small part of Tsuchi Kin that still logical, knew this. Just as she'd known she should have used _her _bloodline against that damned Nara kid before he trapped in that that Shadow Possession technique of his. So, scrubbing at her eyes with the back of her right hand, she decided to ask the obvious question.

"Where are we?"

**"On my back." **A deep, guttural voice answered.**"Noisy kunoichi."**

"I-It talked!" Kin gawped.

**"Kit...why the hell did you summon me in the middle of the air?" **The unamused voice inquired further. **"And right next to Konoha, no less!"**

"Needed a place to land." Naruto amended. "Sorry about that, Kyuubi."

**"Hmph." **The massive voice grunted, prompting

"Kyuubi?" Kin flopped off Naruto's back, realizing that they were moving, and that Naruto had folded his legs to sit. "As in th-that Kyuubi? The n-nine tailed fox?" Naruto patted the crimson coat they'd been sitting on this entire time, rubbing the hide of the great creature who was currently carrying them to safety. "So y-you're...

"The one and only." Naruto patted its hide again. "I used to be this guy's jinchuuriki until a certain...incident. Now, for some reason, I'm able to summon him whenever I please."

**"Kit!" **Mighty and thunderous against the night, a deep rumble suddenly resounded from somewhere beneath their mount. **"You _dare _summon me as a mere beast of burden?" **Though no answer did come, the voice apparently decided the impeding silence was worthy of retort. **"Bah, no respect! I'd flay you alive if it weren't for that damned seal!**Something _stamped _loudly.**"You'd better have a damned good reason for bringing me out, by the way, the lot of you! For daring to rouse the great and mighty Kyuubi no Yoko, I'll slowly skin you all alive! FOOLS!" **

"Just ignore him." Naruto waved his hand flippantly. "He's pretty much always like this."

Suddenly, and without the slightest hint of provocation or anything to indicate otherwise, they were moving even faster than before. Kin risked glance toward the beasts back and counted what looked like nine tails of fur and they looked so soft, too! As the last of the trees fell away, the creature _-this was no mere hill on which they'd fallen- _burst from ta mighty leap and _roared. _**"Who's this one, then? I don't seem to recall her face, kit." **Kin gawped gaped as nine tails of crimson fur swayed too and fro behind the beast, bifurcating the treetops within a single blowing and creating massive quakes whenever its four paws drummed against the ground, which, was quite often.

"She's an ally." Kin blinked rapidly as Naruto leaned forward and delicately placed both hands behind her head. An instant later, her headband unfurled. Naruto must've procured a kunai at some point because when Kin next saw him, he was tracing a thin and parallel line across the surface of her hitiate, carving straight through the middle, just as his own forehead protect had been. When he gave it back to her, she hadn't a clue as to what he wanted her to do with the thing.

"Go ahead." He mimed a tying of the cloth, because he was wearing his own hitiate over his forehead again, clearly intending for her to do the same. She flushed at the thought, but complied; because the gesture felt slightly empowering as she readjusted her now scratched headband. "Feels nice, huh?" Kin blushed as he show her an identical scratch marred across the Otogakure symbol, matching that of the battered but slashed Konohagakure sigil he so proudly wore.

"M-Maybe."

**"A comrade, then?"** The deep soprano of a voice hollered through loud laughter. **"So we're finally starting!"**Kin paled as the kitsune shook itself mightily, nearly dislodging them. Some small part, the trace remnants of her that were still loyal to Oto, screamed and wailed and rejected such a thing; because she needed to come to terms with the fact that she was essentially a nukenin now, and that meant that she'd gone from being a follower of Orochimaru, to a wanted criminal. Her mind shrieked at her to flee from this deceptively calm boy before her, to let go of this thing and run, but her body, frozen with something was very much not fear, refused to obey the earnest command.

"Starting what?"

"My revenge." Naruto answered pleasantly, displaying an eerie nonchalance that Kin couldn't bring herself to feel. "On the Hidden Leaf Village." He pulled down his scarf, exposing to her once more the jagged line that ran the length of his throat and then some. "My very own village tried to kill me, but, obviously, I survived. However, before I take my revenge, I need allies, and loyal ones at that. Too many to count, scores upon scores of skilled shinobi that I can trust with my life, not to betray me."

He pointed a finger.

"You happen to be one of them."

"M-Me?" Kin blushed, abashed. "N-Now wait just one second! You don't even know me! And I don't know a damn thing about-

"There's not much to know." Naruto interrupted cheerily. "I've spared _your _life, so now I'd appreciate it if you'd do the same."

"Whoa!" She gripped down upon the kitsune as it reared back and roared a challenge barreling past another blurring countryside frame. Naruto laughed and remained cross-legged, entirely unfazed by this sudden burst of agility. to be of a like mind in that regard, as she stared down helplessly, flinching as a massive tail arced past them, sweeping aside the serpents with was all they could do just to cling to the beast's back, lest they too be blown away with the rest of the forest.

_**"If you're going to make a habit of sharing that little sob story,"**_Another unamused chortle rumbled from the nothingness. "_**I'm afraid we're going to have a problem, kit." **_Unsurprisingly, Naruto wasn't even remotely fazed by the biju's retort. He patted the place beside him, to which Kin _-reluctantly- _scooted over. Despite the fact they sat upon the back of a giant nine-tailed fox the very thing that had ravaged Konoha once before and just cleared the boundaries of said village, the scene remained oddly peaceful, full moon and all.

"No, no," Naruto shook his head. "She has a right to know, if she's going to be our comrade. Besides, the Land of Demons is still a long way from here. It'll kill some time." Kin blinked again, at a loss for words for only the second time in her young life. The first had been when her parents died, one that she did not care to revisit, the second had a much more _moralizing _effect on her as she beheld the forest streaking by beneath them. Now, snatched from the jaws of death by a terrific _-not to mention handsome-_mising nin, she'd learned that someone else had suffered through a terrible betrayal and that someone had _survived _when there'd been no one to save him.

"You're wondering why I'm going to all this trouble in the first place, aren't you?" Naruto smiled pleasantly. "Well, our next destination if the Land of Demons. There's a certain _priestess _there that made a request of me a few months back, after I wandered into her country, something about destroying some demon or something. While I'd like nothing more than to stick around here and nab another of your master's unusual allies, circumstances have forced me to "_honor_" that request." Below them, there was a low, trickling reverberation of laughter from Kyuubi.

**"You're right to think him crazy, little one."**

"Nu-uh," Kin shook her head and mimed a hand at scar on his jawline. "I was asking about...well...just _how _did you get that?"

Naruto exhaled heavily.

"Well, it all started when I stole the Scroll of Sealing...

**A/N: BWAH I have like five seconds to write this authors note so it'll be quick! This. Is. A. Harem. Vote for the girls you want to see, but know that Kin is already involved, obviously. Yes, she is now officially considered a missing nin, and YES, the characters are older in this fic. Naruto never met Jiraiya. Naruto might not ever meet Jiraiya. Obsviously he wants the village to burn down but he's not going to be very nice about, and yet... I just couldn't bear to have Kin-chan be killed! Don't worry there won't be a big long FIVE CHAPTER flashback, or anything. Hope you all enjoy the new Dark Naruto and the massive army he'll be creating! Mwahaha!**

**Reviews keep me writing ~Nz**


	2. Author's Advisory MUST READ FIRST!

**_A/N: _****_IGNORE THE DAMNED SUMMARY YOU SEE ON THE ACTUAL EMAIL PAGE! THIS AUTHORS NOTE IS THE SUMMARY AND IT IS NOT NARUTOXFEM!SHIKAMARU! IT IS NARUTOXHAREM and THE TITLE IS SUPPOSED TO BE WHEN DARKNESS FALLS. THIS AUTORS NOTE IS BASSICALLY THE SUMMARY._**

_Sarutobi was a fool. He wanted to tell them Naruto's Legacy. Instead, he refrained. Now, that silence is about to cost Konoha most dearly as Naruto is consumed by hatred and vengeance. He's gone to the edge of darkness, god help us all. Narutoxharem. vIOLENCE, BADASSERY and movie/filler characters will be included in said harem so vote!_

**In short, this is Naruto after someone made an attempt on his life. What does that make him? ****_Basically, a very pissed, very BADASS dark Naruto when he returns several years later and begins his plot of revenge. What on earth were you thinking, Naruto no baka! You shouldn't have put up with any of that nastiness in the first place! That being said, the setting is roughly three years later than in canon and is DELIBERATE. Not much has changed aside from the fact that Naruto is basically a little older than the rest of the gang, for the sake of the story, older fools ya fools. And to answer the immediate question I KNOW you'll all be asking, this is at a point, a pivotal point, just a little AFTER the preliminary exams. _**

**_Did I mention his plans inolve recruiting a number of allies?_**

**_BEWARE: Naruto...is rather dark and saddistic in this ficlet, and you'll soon see why, so read very carefully and all shall be explained! Also, Shipudden events have yet to happen just thought I'd mention that as when the time skip comes THEN Shippuden will begin. For now, this is just Naruto, Dark and not nice Naruto, but Naruto nonetheless, he'll have his moments of niceness like all villains do, I guess...(sigh) it'll probably also be a harem because I can't see him sticking with one girl from the way I've made him T_T._**

**_NARUTO WILL HAVE HIS REVENGE SO VOTE FOR DE PAIRINGS FOOLS YA FOOLS XD!_**


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